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E46 Xi Forum The E46 XI was produced from 01-05 in sedan and touring body styles. Powered by either a 2.5L inline 6 in the 325xi or a 3.0L inline 6 330xi. Discuss all thing about BMW AWD E46 'Xi' here.

I remain confused. My owners manual says 6.6 qts on oil/filter change for xi. The service manual says 8.0 for all wheel drive (6.9 otherwise). Per prior threads some possibility pre-facelifts used 8 and later years (mine is 04) take only 6.6. Dipstick seems full with 6.6. Dealer charges for 8 but dipstick shows overfill. Is there some definitive answer out there????

Oil capacities in the XI are a much debated topic. For some reason it seems that some XIs hold almost 8qts while others (Myself included in this bunch) only take ~7 to reach the full mark.

The reasons for this run the gambit-- From 2 different oil pan shapes (see below) used on the XIs to the updated dipsticks that register full @ ~7qts. There has been no definitive answer as to why from what I have been able to research. I have also seen printouts from owners manuals with different figures. Generaly speaking it "seems" that the higher capacity figures are mostly from earlier production XIs but not always. Clear as mud yet?

Thanks for all the replies. For my car 2004xi, I'm going to stay with 6.6 per owners manual and my dipstick and not worry that the xi spec per service manual seems to list 8 qts but makes no distinctions among years.

Thanks for all the replies. For my car 2004xi, I'm going to stay with 6.6 per owners manual and my dipstick and not worry that the xi spec per service manual seems to list 8 qts but makes no distinctions among years.

That's what I would do man. Go by your dipstick. I wasn't even aware they changed the oil pan design sometime after mine was built.